Andrew Clements

Author of the 2.5 Million-Copy Bestseller FRINDLE

Novels

The Map Trap

Alton Barnes loves maps. He’s loved them ever since he was little, and not just for the geography. Because maps contain more information than just locations, and that’s why he likes to draw maps as well as read them. Regular “point A to point B” ones, sure, but also maps that explain a whole lot more—like what he really thinks about his friends. And teachers. Even the principal.

The Keepers of the School—known to their friends as Ben, Jill, and Robert—have one last chance to save their school before it’s torn down to make room for a seaside amusement park. But their nemeses, Janitors Lyman and Wally, are just as determined to keep the kids out of the way and the demolition on schedule.
One way or the other, this battle is about to come to a head. When all is said and done, will the school still be standing? Or will everything the Keepers have fought for be destroyed?

Benjamin Pratt and his friends Jill and Robert are determined to save their school from destruction. But just when it seems they’ve finally gotten the upper hand over that awful Janitor Lyman, they’re caught completely off guard by his next move: Lyman has called in reinforcements, and suddenly Benjamin, Jill, and Robert find themselves dodging not one evil janitor, but two. That’s right: Lyman’s got himself a partner. And it quickly becomes clear that Wally, the new guy, is even more corrupt and menacing than Lyman

Jordan Johnston is average. Not short, not tall. Not plump, not slim. Not blond, not brunette. Not gifted, not flunking out. Even her shoe size is average. She’s ordinary for her school, for her town, for even the whole wide world, it seems.

But everyone else? They’re remarkable. She sees evidence everywhere—on TV, in magazines, and even in her classroom. Tremendously talented. Stunningly beautiful. Wildly gifted. And some of
them are practically her age!

The Oakes School is full of secrets. Secret doors, secret histories…and secret missions. Now that Benjamin Pratt has the key to get in any time he wants, he and Jill have gotten serious—and seriously sneaky—about finding a way to save the school. If the Oakes School gets torn down, Ben knows his town will never be the same—and that the evil janitor, Lyman, will be the official winner of their cat and mouse game. But forget cat and mouse. Lyman has something else in mind: a big vicious guard dog.

There's a folder in Principal Kelling's office that's as thick as a phonebook and it's growing daily. It's filled with the incident reports of every time Clayton Hensley broke the rules. There's the minor stuff like running in the hallways and not being where he was suppose to be when he was supposed to be there. But then there are also reports that show Clay's own brand of troublemaking, like the most recent addition: the art teacher has said that the class should spend the period drawing anything they want and Clay decides to be extra "creative" and draw a spot-on portrait of Principal Kellings…as a donkey.

The Keepers of the School are back and the stakes are even higher. Time is ticking as the countdown to their school’s total demolition continues. Ben has been given a handful of clues that could help them save the school, but they are all written in maritime riddles. “After five bells sound, time to sit down.” What the heck does that mean? It’s hard to know where to begin when Ben and Jill don’t even know what they are looking for.

Benjamin Pratt’s school is about to become the site of a new amusement park. It sounds like a dream come true! But lately, Ben has been wonder if he’s going to like an amusement park in the middle of his town—with all the buses and traffic and eight dollar slices of pizza. It’s going to change everything. And Ben is not so big on all the new changes in his life, like how his dad has moved out and started living in the marina on what used to be the “family” sailboat.

It isn’t that Abby Carson can’t do her schoolwork. She just doesn’t like doing it. And in February a warning letter arrives at her home. Abby will have to repeat sixth grade-unless she meets some specific conditions, including taking on an extra credit project: find a pen pal in a distant country. Seems simple enough.

The Grayson twins are moving to a new town. Again. Although it's a drag to be constantly
mistaken for each other, in truth, during those first days at a new school, there's nothing better
than having a twin brother there with you. But on day one of sixth grade, Ray stays home sick, and
Jay is on his own. No big deal. It's a pretty nice school, good kids, too. But Jay quickly discovers
a major mistake: No one seems to know a thing about his brother. Ray's not on the attendance lists,
doesn't have a locker, doesn't even have a student folder. Jay almost tells the school -- almost --
but then decides that this lost information could be very...useful. And fun. As Ray and Jay exploit
a clerical oversight, they each find new views on friendship, honesty, what it means to be a twin --
and what it means to be yourself. Entertaining, thought-provoking, and true-to-life, this clever
novel is classic Andrew Clements times two: twins!

Alicia may be blind, but that doesn't mean she can't see what's happening right in front of her eyes. Like how her parents try to give her freedom. Or how Bobby--now Robert--has returned to figure out their relationship. Or even the invisible man, William, and just how dangerous he is to Alicia, to Robert, to their whole family--or so the police say. Or is Alicia wrong this time? If her normally sharp instincts are wrong, the results could be disastrous.

Here is a novel full of adventure, romance, and mystery, which at its heart is about trusting--even things we know but cannot see.

The fifth-grade girls and the fifth-grade boys at Laketon Elementary don't get along very well. But the real problem is that these kids are loud and disorderly. That's why the principal uses her red plastic bullhorn. A lot.

Then one day Dave Packer, a certified loudmouth, bumps into an idea - a big one that makes him try to keep quiet for a whole day. But what does Dave hear during lunch? A girl, Lynsey Burgess, jabbering away. So Dave breaks his silence and lobs an insult. Those words lead to other words about who's the biggest loudmouth, and those words spark a contest: Which team can say the fewest words during two whole days? And it's the boys against the girls.

Ted Hammond loves a good mystery, and in the spring of his fifth-grade year, he's working on a big one. How can his school in the little town of Plattsford stay open next year if there are going to be only five students? Out here on the Great Plains in western Nebraska, everyone understands that if you lose the school, you lose the town.

But the mystery that has Ted's full attention at the moment is about that face, the face he sees in the upper window of the Andersons' house as he rides past on his paper route. The Andersons moved away two years ago, and their old farmhouse is empty, boarded up tight. At least it's supposed to be.

Gwen's grandfather has disappeared from their home in New York City, but he's left her a phone message telling her not to worry - and to let no one know he's gone. The timing couldn't be worse. Gwen has violin auditions soon at Manhattan's top music schools. More stress is not what she needs. Then she meets Robert, also in town for auditions, and her new freedom actually seems to have some benefits. After all, she's seventeen, suddenly on her own, and there's no place on earth quite like New York.

Greg Kenton has always had a natural talent for making money -- despite the annoying rivalry of his neighbor Maura Shaw. Then, just before sixth grade, Greg makes a discovery: Almost every kid at school has an extra quarter or two to spend almost every day.

Multiply a few quarters by a few hundred kids, and for Greg, school suddenly looks like a giant piggy bank. All he needs is the right hammer to crack it open. Candy and gum? Little toys? Sure, kids would love to buy stuff like that at school. But would teachers and the principal permit it? Not likely.

But how about comic books? Comic books might work. Especially the chunky little ones that Greg writes and illustrates himself. Because everybody knows that school always encourages reading and writing and creativity and individual initiative, right?

It all started when Hart Evans zinged a rubber band that hit Mr. Meinert, the chorus director. Actually, it started before that, when Mr. Meinert learned he was out of a job because the town budget couldn't afford music and art teachers. Mr. Meinert got so mad at Hart that he told the sixth graders he'd had it -- they could produce the big holiday concert on their own. Or not. It was all up to them. What happens when a teacher steps aside and lets the kids run the show? Not what Mr. Meinert would have predicted. And not what Hart Evans would have guessed, not at all.

Nora Rowley is a genius. The thing is, nobody but Nora knows that. Being so smart, Nora noticed early on, makes you stand out, and standing out was not something she wanted. Instead, Nora always tried to be exactly average. But now Nora has a new plan, and when she comes home with a bad report card, her parents and the school launch a massive effort to find out what's wrong. But that is exactly what Nora wants. All the attention is the perfect chance to prove how arbitrary grades are and that they don't matter nearly as much as everyone at Philbrook Elementary thinks.

Mark didn't ask to move to New Hampshire. Or to go to a hick school like Hardy Elementary. And he certainly didn't request Mr. Maxwell as his teacher. Now the whole fifth grade is headed out for a week of camping -- Hardy's famous Week in the Woods. At first it sounds dumb, but then Mark decides it might be okay to learn something new. But things go all wrong for Mark. This Week in the Woods is not what anyone planned. Especially not Mr. Maxwell.

When Phil sees another kid wearing his brother's jacket, he assumes the jacket was stolen. It turns out he was wrong, and Phil has to ask himself the question: Would he have made the same assumption if the boy wearing the jacket hadn't been African American? And that question leads to others that reveal some unsettling truths about Phil's neighborhood, his family, and even himself.

Twelve-year-old Natalie Nelson has written a powerful school story. It's a short novel called "The Cheater," and her best friend Zoe is certain it should be published. All Natalie has to do is give the manuscript to her mom, an editor at a big publishing house. However Natalie doesn't want any favors from her mom. Still, Zoe won't drop the idea.

When Jack Rankin gets busted for defacing a school desk with a huge wad of disgusting, watermelon bubble gum, the principal sentences him to three weeks of after-school gum cleanup for the chief custodian. The problem is, Jack's anger at the chief custodian was the reason for his gum project in the first place. The chief custodian happens to be Jack's dad. But doing time in the school basement after hours reveals some pretty surprising things: about the school, about Jack's father, and about Jack himself.

Fifth-grader Cara Landry has not had a smooth school experience since her parents divorced, and now she has the worst teacher in school. (Mr. Larson hands out worksheets each morning and then sits back to read the paper.) Cara is a contained, bright, creative loner whose goal is to be a journalist. When she publishes her own newspaper, The Landry News, and editorializes on the absence of teaching in her classroom, her days of anonymity are over.

When Nick learns some interesting information about how words are created, suddenly he's got the inspiration for his best plan ever...the frindle. Who says a pen has to be called a pen? Why not call it a frindle?